Remittance ‘mega-flows’ to Asia

Remittances to the Philippines reached US$28 billion in 2014, making the country the third largest remittance recipient in the world, a report from the World Bank (WB) showed.
The country is preceded only by India, which received remittances of $70 billion, and China, $64 billion. Mexico and Nigeria followed the Philippines, having received $25 billion and $21 billion, respectively.
Total remittances in 2014 reached $583 billion, representing a 4.7 percent growth from 2013.
“This (total remittances) is more than double the ODA (official development assistance) in the world… With new thinking, these mega-flows can be leveraged to finance development and infrastructure projects,” said the bank’s chief economist and senior vice president Kaushik Basu.
For this year, global remittances are projected to grow by 0.4 percent, the slowest growth rate since the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2008. In 2015,
total remittances are expected to reach $586 billion.
“The slowdown in the growth of remittances this year will affect most developing countries…The positive impact of an economic recovery in the US will be partially offset by continued weakness in the Euro area, the impact of lower oil prices on the Russian economy, the strengthening of the US dollar, and tighter immigration controls in many remittance source countries,” the report said.
Slowdown seen in 2015
For East Asia and the Pacific, the World Bank said the growth will also be slower. From an estimated 7.6 percent growth in 2014, growth this year is seen to hit 2.8 percent.
Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the BSP said 1.6 million Filipinos were deployed last year, while job orders increased by 10.7 percent to 878,609.
The United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada are the top countries where Filipinos work or migrate.